It seems to me the notion of "eradicating" mites is preposterous. The two-spotted mite has lots of hosts and is widespread in every garden. What is normal in most gardens is an equilibrium where you have some two-spotted mites on the roses, some predators eating them, and usually little or no noticeable damage. At times, weather conditions lead to a surge in the TSM population and you have a problem, starting on certain canary-in-the-coalmine varieties that you learn to identify and watch for danger signs. If I bring a potted rose that has been doing fine outside into my sunspace, it will have a catastrophic mite problem within a month unless I spray it with soap or oil frequently. The basic reason is lower relative humidity. The mites were there all the time but not causing a problem. Mite outbreaks are often caused by spraying insecticides which kill the predators of TSM. The use of Merit is known to cause an increase in TSM reproduction apart from the effect on beneficial predators. If an insecticide must be used, spinosad (for caterpillars, thrips, and sawflies) is best from the standpoint of mite control because it spares the predators. Mite outbreaks are favored by high temps, low relative humidity, and lack of rain as well as by use of insecticides. In areas with rainfall, roses planted under eaves are much more susceptible to mites. New potted roses may be susceptible to mites because mite predators were killed by sprays in the greenhouse. I can always find TSM on my roses, but I very rarely have a problem. That's because our weather normally doesn't favor them, and I don't use insecticides.

dan_keil_cr, In Jeff Gilman's new book "The Truth About Garden Recipes", he makes a few points about insect control, stating that garlic is more of a repellant than an insecticide that has medium term effect, say a week or two before you have to respray (unless it rains). The insects themselves will either leave your garden or go migrate to the leaves/buds/flowers you have missed. He strongly recommends that you use insecticidal soap to kill those insects you missed. Hot Chilli preparations either homemade or bought are particularly effective on mites as a repellant more so than an insecticide. He also likes the contact insecticide ingredient Acephate (not too tough on the beneficials with slight systemic activity), he does not like Imidacloprid for mites only (Bayer uses this in some insecticides) as it has been shown to actually increase the mite population, but could be used once to quickly wipe out an initial problem (some people have written it hurts bees but I have not seen proof of this). If you area is experiencing a drought it probable that all the gardens in your area are experiencing the same issues so spraying insecticides (a final resort) might only temporarily solve your problem as they will quickly return, maybe via your neighbors; thrips particularly are easily carried in the wind. One treatment might help to at least get it down to a manageable level or continued treatment with Beauvaria Bassiana fungus, if you can find it. If you can please let us know where you got it from. Thrips love drought especially plants that are drought stricken and thrips feed on mites, a veritable all you can eat buffet for them, mites and plants. One begets the other; similar to the Biblical plagues in Egypt; which in this case may be followed by diseased plants. In Whitney Crenshaw's "Garden Insects of America" he states that thrips are an important carrier of disease and are hard to remove from flowers and buds, so cutting them off when you initially spray may be a good idea. He further states that plants showing any sign of disease should be immediately destroyed. I am no expert on disease so you should discuss this with others more expert before you pull a plant. He feels sanitation of course is a key, raking leaves, etc., and that insecticides are a very weak second often being unsuccessful. Perhaps removing your current mulch and replacing it. And above all proper watering is the holy grail of control with this problem; watering washes thrips from plants and seals their pupal stages in the soil, which is why rainfall controls them. If your soil is not holding water well you might want to ask the soil experts what to do, mulch of course helps a lot. So it seems it might be solvable but will require constant vigilance and a lot of hard work spraying and making up your garlic preparations. One last note, home-made garlic preparations seem to work much better than store bought; you can buy no-skin cloves 3 lbs in a plastic jar from Costco. Store bought chilli concoctions seem to work better than home-made I do not know why. Hope this helps.

I see you are in zone 10. If you are sure you didn't over-water (like something major happened) then Yes, it could be the exact problem you are talking about with soil moisture: un-even water distribution. I have several trees in the type of mix you appear to use and this is the #1 reason I hate it. In our hot weather we're taught to not water until the top few inches of the soil is dry. Well guess what, over time this will develop dry patches that will never become re-hydrated pending constant rain or major intervention. I fought this problem two weeks ago with 3 of my container citrus trees in bagged mixes. I could feel the soil had dried out from winter and I was preparing them for Spring (the trees looked fine BTW). Having experience with this, I was DETERMINED to wet 100% of the soil using whatever method I could. I watered it for the entire DAY -- and the soil below 3 inches was still dry. I watered until it was soaked, went away for 30 minutes, came back and did it again: repeat many times. The next day I submerged it in a container filled with water and walked away for 4 hours. Came back and pulled it out -- still dry inside! This is why I hate peat and bagged soil mixes in a desert climate. If you are trying NOT to over-water and mistakenly wait a little bit too long, you've created a dry patch. The patch will only get bigger the more often you make those little mistakes. If this is the case with your tree, submerge it in water and use any type of dowel (smooth skinny stick) to "loosen up" the soil in the container while it's submerged. The more tunnels you create, the better. The skinnier the stick the better so you don't tear roots. Most of my citrus trees are in the Gritty Mix where I don't have any such issues. I also rest easy when it's pouring rain outside knowing they won't be drowning. However, the gritty mix is a bit of work to make and cannot be purchased. The ingredients can be expensive but they last for a very long time. The bagged mixes are meant for shorter term - like 1 year (or 2 years MAX) before needing full replacement. How long one can make it last depends on how healthy a tree you are wanting.

Oh my goodness aruzinsky, apparently I've offended you - you're so upset you published your objections twice. Seriously, though, "people like me?" I'm not presuming to "speak" for anyone - simply using the word we in a general sense, like "we take care of plants," or "we work hard;" like a chemist might say of him/her self and others in the same profession, "we do experiments to learn about the effects of chemical substances." In that sense, "we" aren't likely to talk about eradicating insects, because eradicating is defined as "to get rid of completely," and "we" know that is impossible, and control is the best "we" can do. As in the article you site, where the researchers repeatedly use the word "control." However, to be more precise, "we," be we growers, plantcare companies, or even retail stores, generally just talk about "killing" mites, and what products and processes kill them best. If people want to use chemical controls, fine by me. I thought all the discussions of chemicals might be a little off-putting for some people, so I merely wanted to throw in my experience of success using a simple, inexpensive, easy to acquire, and safe treatment. I don't think it's a "fault in my thinking" to say I never observed damage to a plant. The point with interior landscaping is not to grow plants as big as they can be, but to keep them looking beautiful. Spots, discolorations, stunted leaves, and so on, would not be beautiful, and these things I did not see. Some of these plants were in my care for several years, and did not show any negative effects. Informal observation has value, too. After all, I don't need to conduct detailed astronomical observations to be able to say with reasonable certainty that the sun will come up tomorrow. Spider mites, as well as other pests commonly found on indoor plants, are a fact of life. (Of course, if you live in an area where the winter temperatures are regularly below freezing, you're not going to be seeing bugs floating in from outside. Thanks for clarifying that.) That doesn't change the fact that they do float around when temps are warm, and they can infect anyone's plants at any time. Some people might appreciate knowing they have alternatives other than chemical insecticides for dealing with them, call it what you will - eradicate, exterminate, eliminate, extirpate - the point is to get the little buggers off your plants.